All-Winners Squad (Earth-616)
Membership *Captain America *Bucky *Sub-Mariner *Human Torch *Toro *Miss America *Whizzer *Blonde Phantom *Angel (Thomas Halloway) Revealed to be a member in Citizen V & the V-Battalion v1 #1 *Golden Girl (Betsy Ross) The company's first such team, the All-Winners Squad was created for Marvel predecessor Timely Comics in 1946, near the end of the Golden Age of comic books. It consisted of Captain America and sidekick Bucky; the Human Torch and sidekick Toro; the Sub-Mariner; super-speedster The Whizzer; and Miss America. Timely previously had a non-superhero team of detectives, the 3Xs. While the superteam made only two Golden Age appearances — in All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946) and #21 (Winter 1946; there was no issue #20) — it reacquired fan interest upon their being reprinted by Marvel during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books. Timely and Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee recalled in 1999: “ I suspect that publisher Martin Goodman was the guy behind the All-Winners Squad. It's not the type of title I'd have made up. I think he simply must have said to me one day, "I wanna do a book featuring the Torch, Toro, C.A., etc. — and let's call it the All-Winners Squad." In which case I woulda just gotten the stuff together and sent it out. But honestly, although I can remember the title, I can remember nothing else about it. The first appearance of the All-Winners Squad, titled "The Crime of the Ages", was written by Bill Finger. Its seven chapters were penciled variously by Vince Alascia, Al Avison, Bob Powell, and Syd Shores, and inked by Avison, Alascia, Powell, Allen Bellman, Al Gabriele, and Don Rico. The second outing, "Menace From the Future World", was written by Otto Binder. Its seven chapters penciled by Alascia, Avison, Shores, and the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas also known as Chuck Nicholas, and inked by Alascia, Avison, Gabriele, Nicholas, and Shores. The All-Winners Squad has been retconned as the post-war continuation of The Invaders and Liberty Legion (two World War II team created by Marvel in the 1970s) and as the inspiration for the V-Battalion (a post-war superhero team created by Marvel in 2001). First modern appearance is in What If? #4, Aug. 1977, where is revealed that when, in 1945, Captain America/Steve Rogers and Bucky were presumed dead after Baron Zemo's attack, President Truman asks William Naslund, the patriotically costumed Golden Age hero the Spirit of '76, to assume the Captain America role, with a young man named Fred Davis as Bucky. They continue to serve in the same roles after the war with the All-Winners Squad, until the android Adam II fatally injures Naslund, in 1946 . After Naslund's death, Jeff Mace, the Golden Age Patriot, takes over as Captain America, with Davis continuing as Bucky; however, Davis is shot and injured in 1948 and forced to retire. Mace teams up with Betsy "Golden Girl" Ross, and sometime before 1953 gives up his Captain America identity to marry her. Mace develops cancer and dies decades later (Captain America #285, Sept. 1983). In mid 1950s also an unnamed man and Jack Monroe served as Captain America and Bucky. Another group is retconned in World War II battle: The Liberty Legion, that included two of future All-Winner Squad member (the Whizzer and Miss America. The team is created by Marvel in 1976, but as described in modern-day retcon origin, were assembled in 1942 by Captain America sidekick Bucky, the only Invaders member to escape a brainwashing trap by the Red Skull. She-hulk Team-up In She-Hulk (vol. II) #22, we saw that in 1946 the All-Winners Squad (Captain America (II or III, I couldn't tell (and I'm not at all sure that Steve Gerber even knew about the transition); somewhere I got the idea that Cap II died around February of 1946, so it depends on when in 1946 the story took place), Bucky II, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, Toro, Whizzer, Miss America) worked alongside the Blonde Phantom (II) (who was using a motorcycle to get around, something I don't remember her doing in her golden age stories) in an effort to stop gangster Dutch Rosenblatt from stealing an atomic bomb (a rather poor showing for the Winners, it didn't work due to the extratemporal interference of the She-Hulk and Wanda Mason (daughter of the BP), who had come back in time to find out where Rosenblatt had hidden/would hide the bomb in order to...well, that's a separate story). Whether the Blonde Phantom was supposed to be a new member or was just helping out this one time is unclear; if the former, she's the only "new" member of the Winners we've heard about (aside from the fact that the Patriot served alongside Captain America II, something we of course never learned in the golden age but found out in What If #4). Citizen V & the V-Battalion v1 #1 didn't show the Squad in action, but it did portray a meeting between the Squad and Roger Aubrey, aka the Destroyer, a meeting which led to the establishement of the V-Battalion. This meeting also showed the The Angel. being a member of the All-Winners Squad Category:Teams Category:Defunct Teams Category:Good Teams Category:All-Winners Squad Category:Copy Edit